A tongue in cheek look at postwar austerity. Richard Massingham. Crown Film Unit. austere post war era.


This movie is part of the collection: British Government Public Information Films

Director: Michael Law
Production Company: Public Relationship Films
Sponsor: Central Office of Information
Audio/Visual: sound, color
Language: English
Keywords: postwar austerity; Great Britain

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Reviewer: jdavis_ls - - October 26, 2008
Subject: It sure wouldn't have cheered me up
This film seems to say that the answer to doom, gloom, and pessimistic thinking brought on by the grinding deprivations of the war and then the post-war environment was to look at your misery as being absurd and laugh at it.

Not a very pragmatic solution, in my opinion.

I mean these guys make a suicide pact! They're at rock bottom. I don't think an absurdist point of view is going to be the magic pill for the majority of the public.

The sadness in the face of one of these fellows was so crushing that I wanted to gather him up, pet his head, and make it all better. I had an intense reaction to his expression that I don't usually have to the faces of actors on TV or film.

Reviewer: Spuzz - - July 5, 2008
Subject: What a life is right.
Rather droll and depressing film until the film's final final act, where we're supposed to laugh it off I suppose? Interesting and odd premise, not too sure if it all works though. The main thing I like about this film is we get to find out the main actor's name in a lot of these british shorts in this section. His name is Richard Massingham. An excellent bio can be found at http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/521707/ . Also, an interesting fact. He owned the company making these films!

Reviewer: boffy_b - - January 19, 2008
Subject: Black and white
This, along with several of these films, is listed as being in colour when it is actually in black and white.

Credits

Public Information Films